Empathy - the secret ingredient to successful change engagement webinar Tuesday 13 June 2023 APM Enabling Change Specific Interest Group Presented by: Donna Unitt and Matt Lawrence The link to the write up page and resources of this webinar: https://www.apm.org.uk/news/empathy-the-secret-ingredient-to-successful-change-engagement-webinar/ Content description: Successful stakeholder engagement rests heavily on the extent to which you can engage, understand, and connect with your stakeholders. Understanding and practicing empathy is key to achieving this. In this webinar presented on Tuesday 13 June we explored the concept of empathy, explained the value of empathy when engaging with stakeholders, provided ideas to help you practice empathy, and offered practical guidance on effective empathy mapping. Empathy mapping provides you with the ability to understand and connect with your stakeholders to reveal valuable information and insights. Learning about the importance of connecting with your stakeholders and understanding what they think, feel, say and do so that you can structure your change for success. Listening to this webinar will teach you about the meaning and value of empathy, techniques to build your empathy ‘muscle’ and how to use empathy mapping for your projects.

1. Empathy - The secret ingredient to
successful change engagement
APM Enabling Change SIG
13 June 2023

2. Introductions
Matt Lawrence
Matt is a project professional, speaker, trainer, and a
member of APM’s Enabling Change SIG.
Donna Unitt
Donna is the Head of Delivery at Rocket Consulting Ltd and is
the Chair of APM's Enabling Change SIG

3. Enabling Change
Specific Interest Group (SIG)
The Enabling Change SIG aims to develop and
sustain individual practitioner, team and
organisational change capability by facilitating
access to and exploration of change methods,
standards, case studies and good practices.
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Our mission is to:
Improve the change
capability of organisations,
teams and individuals

4. Agenda
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Lunch served 12.15
A selection of hot and cold foods will be
served arum simenimi, sus ma verum
aped ullab invelictem.
Afternoon session arrival 13.15
13.30 Speaker name
14.30 Meeting title
15.15 Drinks break
15.30 Meeting title
16.30 Speaker name
17.00 Drinks
1. Introductions
2. An introduction to empathy
3. Empathy and projects
4. Why empathy is valuable for Project Managers
5. Techniques to build empathy
6. Conclusion

5. An introduction to empathy

6. What is empathy?
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Understanding and
sharing the
thoughts and
feelings of others
“
” Unlocking team motivation through
authentic connections
Negotiating with suppliers and holding
them to account
Explaining new topics, updates, ideas
and bad news
Encouraging people to embrace new
ideas and adopt new ways of working
Supporting colleague performance by
identifying and removing blockers

7. The ingredients of empathy
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Perspective
Taking
Avoiding
Judgement
Social Cognition Communication
Empathy
Being able to recognise
that people have different
perspectives and
considering what it feels
like from their point of
view.
Recognising emotions
and feelings in others
(having the ability to ‘read
the room’) and take action
accordingly.
Not judging people or
discounting their
experience because this
is different to your own
views.
Communicating to explain
that you understand their
feelings and respect their
point of view.

8. The difference between empathy and sympathy
• Empathy is a one-on-one connection
because of a deep understanding that
comes from sharing an emotional
experience.
• Sympathy is a feeling of sadness or
pity felt for another person.
• Compassion is a broader sense of
care for the world at large.
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Sympathy is feeling compassion, sorrow,
or pity for the hardships that another
person encounters.
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in
another person’s shoes and understand the
feelings of others as if they were yours.

9. Sub headline title 18pt Arial Regular
Date of presentation 14pt Arial Regular
How are you feeling?
Balancing multiple priorities
Hungry and looking forward to lunch
Interested and intrigued
Curious about the content
Productive
Excited
Stressed between meetings
Looking forward to the end of the day
Looking forward to upskilling and learning
Interested
Overwhelmed with multi-tasking
Happy

10. The neuroscience of empathy
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▪ Empathy comes naturally to us – we're born with the capability to empathise.
▪ A variety of factors influences are capacity for empathy – childhood, friendships, career profession,
life events.
Hamlin, J., Wynn, K. & Bloom, P. Social evaluation by preverbal infants. Nature 450, 557–559 (2007)
When we empathise with
someone, mirror neurons are
activated which generate
feelings in ourselves.
This resonance between our
brains and another individual
helps us to understand what
they’re feeling in much more
depth.
Evolutionary psychological
effect of this is that we’re more
likely to help one another and
avoid conflict therefore
supporting teamwork.

11. Empathy in Projects

12. The difference between projects and change
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Project
Management
Change Management
Outputs Benefits
Outcomes Capability
• Agreeing a vision of the future
• Coordinating senior leaders and managers
• Changing ways of working
• Supporting people to learn new things
• Communicating change
• Honest conversations about progress
• Motivating a change/project team
• Developing resilience in colleagues
• Embedding learning and reinforcing
• Facilitating training
• Supporting people to use new technology
• Recognising and solving challenges

13. The Change Curve
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Kubler-Ross Change Curve

14. Rogers – Unconditional Positive Regard
The 3 Core Conditions are:
1. Empathy
• Understand the thoughts and the feelings as that someone
experiences them, sometimes referred to as ‘walking in someone
else’s shoes’.
• The reason is that we all have our own perception of the world.
2. Congruence
• Genuine and real.
• This condition is important as builds a trusting relationship
3. Unconditional Positive Regard (UPR)
• The third condition is known as unconditional positive regard or UPR
for short.
• Unconditional positive regard allows the person to open up and speak
about their challenges without fear of being criticised or judged.
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15. Why empathy is valuable for Project
Managers

16. How empathy can build deeper relationships
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Projects involve engagement with people and
stakeholders
We need to be able to engage rationally and
emotionally with stakeholders.
Empathy provides a valuable tool to make a
connection between ourselves and other people
Communication
Developing deeper
relationships
Anticipate issues Resolve conflict
Boost
performance

17. What are the advantages of empathy?
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91% of CEOs believe
empathy is directly linked to a
company’s financial performance1
82% of employees said they
would consider leaving their job for
a more empathetic organisation2
1,2Businesolver, 2019 State of Workplace Empathy
3High-Resolution Leadership, Development Dimensions International
empathy tops the list as
the most critical driver of
overall performance3
“
”

18. Techniques to build empathy

19. The Role of the Empathetic Listener
And, when you successfully win their
trust and confidence, make sure that
you respect it.
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The role of an empathic listener is to be
supportive, kind and caring.
Listen carefully and without judgment.
Interject occasionally to show that
you've understood what's being said.
Where appropriate, repeat key phrases
to encourage the speaker to open up.
Pay attention to what's not being
said, too. Take note of the speaker's
emotional state, their tone of voice,
and their body language.
Mirroring the behaviour of others

20. Unconscious Bias
▪ Bias is normal
▪ Recognising that we all have unconscious bias
▪ You may only hear what you want to hear
▪ You may have preconceived ideas about the type
of individual
▪ You may put the person in particular group and
generalise
▪ What’s happened before could have a baring on
your thoughts
▪ You may think you know better
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21. The power of vulnerability
▪ Show your vulnerability – make that
person trust and open up to you – being
vulnerable promotes empathy
▪ Share your own stories and experience
▪ State that you do not know all the
answers
▪ Show how important they are to
achieving the change
▪ Take them on the journey not just dump
them at the destination
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22. Practical techniques to authentically empathise
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Think about
how you
would want
to be treated
in the other
person’s
position and
let that
guide you
Make a
point of
noticing the
mood of the
room or the
emotional
responses
of the
person you
are
engaging –
look for
micro-cues
Acknowledg
e the issues
or risks –
don’t try to
put a
positive
gloss on
everything
Ask
questions to
better
understand
– especially
if someone
presents
something
that doesn’t
fit with your
own beliefs
or the
consensus
Summarise
back to
check your
understandi
ng of the
key points
Follow up
with people
afterwards –
a wall of
silence
dismantles
trust built
Use
feedback
loops –
remember
true
empathy is
part of
everyday
business

23. Considering empathy in your project
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▪ An Empathy Map is a stakeholder analysis
tool to help you understand your stakeholders
in more detail.
▪ To complete an Empathy Map, consider the
following prompt questions in relation to your
stakeholder group.
▪ You can either directly engage with the
stakeholder group or make it an imaginative
exercise to draw out insights based on your
current understanding
1. What will they think and feel?
2. What will they hear and see?
3. What will they say and do?
4. What are their potential gains?
5. What are their potential pains?

24. Conclusion
▪ Empathy is a key factor for project success
▪ In addition to building your own empathy skills, you will need to promote a wider
empathetic approach across your project team
▪ Consider the use of Empathy Maps to ensure a people-centric focus
▪ Take small steps to improve your own empathy skills
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